Chronicles of Heaven's Chosen - Chapter 28

Lu Xiangxiang stared uncertainly at Ying Wuji’s flawless profile.

Was it a coincidence, or had he been reborn too?

She suppressed her unease and walked toward the group.

“Eldest Senior Brother, Third Senior Brother, Youngest Senior Brother.” Lu Xiangxiang stopped and greeted them obediently. Only after noticing Yuan Yao’s gaze did she add, “Sixth Senior Sister.”

In truth, she was a year older than Yuan Yao. But seniority within the sect left her no choice but to lower her head and address Yuan Yao as her senior sister.

Her gaze shifted to Song Yan, and she frowned with concern.

“Eldest Senior Brother, your wound seems to have opened again. Let me bandage it for you.”

She started toward him.

Ying Wuji spoke first. “Eldest Senior Brother, how did you get hurt so badly?”

He had noticed the bandages covering Song Yan’s face earlier. Although he could not see the wound beneath them, he could tell the injury was severe.

And that bandaging technique looked very much like his Little Junior Sister’s work.

Lu Xiangxiang’s expression stiffened. She looked apologetically at Song Yan and said in a low voice, “Eldest Senior Brother was injured by the black dragon while protecting me.”

The black dragon quietly pulled in its neck, closed its eyes, and lay obediently across Cang Li’s shoulder, pretending none of this had anything to do with it.

Yuan Yao laughed. “Eldest Senior Brother is covered in wounds, while you don’t have so much as a scratch. It seems he protected you very well indeed.”

Lu Xiangxiang raised her head. “What do you mean by that, Sixth Senior Sister?”

Yuan Yao folded her arms. “What do you think I mean?”

“Are you blaming me?” Lu Xiangxiang lowered her eyes. “But my cultivation is low, and I don’t have any life-saving talismans from Master. If I joined the battle, wouldn’t I only drag Eldest Senior Brother down? I don’t have all those high-grade artifacts protecting me either…”

Yuan Yao sighed. “All right, Junior Sister Lu. I misjudged you. I do have more high-grade artifacts than you, as well as the life-saving talismans Master gave me. In every respect, I’m several times better off than you, so there’s no need to feel inferior.”

After a pause, she looked directly at Lu Xiangxiang.

“You remember what I told you, don’t you? An inferiority complex breeds inner demons!”

Lu Xiangxiang’s expression did not change, but her fingers curled more tightly.

“I remember.”

While the two girls spoke, Cang Li finished rebandaging Song Yan’s wounds.

Song Yan kept glancing toward them.

“No wonder my back feels so drafty. You cut my clothes open!” Cang Li ran a hand over his bare back and glared at Yuan Yao. “Yuan Yao, you owe me a new outfit! I paid ten low-grade spirit stones for this!”

“I was saving you!” Yuan Yao stared at him. “And now you want me to pay you?”

“I don’t care!” Cang Li declared righteously. “This is one of my eighteen favorite outfits! You have to replace it!”

Yuan Yao immediately complained, “Eldest Senior Brother, look at him!”

Song Yan did not know whether to laugh or sigh. “I’ll pay for it.”

“No!”

Yuan Yao and Cang Li answered in unison.

They looked at each other, then both turned away with a huff.

Cang Li took a fresh outer robe from his storage space and quickly pulled it on.

Watching the way they interacted, Lu Xiangxiang felt an indescribable ache in her heart.

Just then, Ying Wuji said, “All of you, move back.”

The others looked at him in confusion. He had raised his head toward the coffins suspended in midair.

Six coffins were trembling faintly, while the green flames at their corners flickered and danced.

“Is something wrong?” Song Yan asked.

Without looking away, Ying Wuji said, “The coffins are about to open.”

Delight rose in Lu Xiangxiang’s heart.

The black dragon opened its eyes. Hesitation passed through them, but in the end, it told Cang Li what it knew.

After all, it and this human were in the same boat now. If he died, it would not survive either.

Cang Li’s expression changed when he heard its telepathic warning.

There was no time to explain. He shouted to every cultivator in the chamber, “Everyone, run!”

Then he seized Yuan Yao and Song Yan and sprinted toward another passage.

The two of them were briefly bewildered, but neither hesitated. They immediately ran with him.

“Junior Sister Lu, hurry!” Cang Li called without looking back.

Lu Xiangxiang frowned.

She did not want to leave.

Then—

A silver longsword swept through the air and stopped with its point aimed straight between her eyes.

Startled, Lu Xiangxiang looked up into the black-robed youth’s cold gaze.

“Go,” Ying Wuji said.

Faced with this “threat,” she could only grit her teeth and chase after Yuan Yao and the others.

Weng Mingshu had learned her lesson as well. She grabbed her own Eldest Senior Brother, Yan Haonan, by the arm and took off running.

“Yuan Yao! Wait for me!”

“I can’t! Catch up!” Yuan Yao yelled back without slowing down.

The other cultivators did not understand what was happening, but they sensed that something was wrong. After one look at Ying Wuji, they followed the fleeing group.

Soon, he was the only person left in the chamber.

His phoenix eyes narrowed, their lazy air replaced by a sharp gleam. Long fingers slowly tightened around his sword hilt.

“Come out.”

The six coffins suddenly began shaking violently.

The next instant, a powerful blast tore all six lids free.

Bang!

The heavy lids crashed to the floor.

Withered hands, shriveled like dead branches, crept over the edges of the coffins.

Six desiccated corpses emerged.

Their bodies had contracted until gray-green skin clung tightly to bone. Their hair and nails had grown unnaturally long, as though they had slept within those coffins for centuries.

The green flames at the corners of the coffins suddenly surged into their bodies.

The corpses, whose heads had been hanging low, slowly looked up. Their neck bones creaked with every movement.

Green light ignited in their dead eyes.

In the next instant, all six tomb guardian corpses attacked Ying Wuji with astonishing speed.

Every one of them had reached the late Nascent Soul Realm.

The tomb guardian corpse in the long robe had even reached the early Soul Transformation Realm!

Ying Wuji immediately raised his sword to meet them.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The six corpses surrounded the black-robed youth. Silver sword in hand and brows lowered, he slashed again and again.

Though long dead, their bodies were extraordinarily hard. They moved with agility and flawless coordination, trapping him tightly at the center.

Meanwhile, Yuan Yao and the others had reached the passage. Hearing the fierce battle behind them, they stopped and turned.

Ying Wuji was darting back and forth under the six tomb guardian corpses’ siege, danger closing around him from every side.

Shock waves rolled outward with the force of collapsing mountains and churning seas, bringing a suffocating pressure with them.

The cultivators paled when they saw the corpses. One cried out, “What kind of monsters are those?!”

“Tomb guardian corpses,” Cang Li said, his eyes complicated.

They were also legacy guardians.

According to the black dragon, they carried the keys to the Six Great Secret Treasures.